My impressions? The article does a very good job of connecting the dots between the leftist movements assembling in their new form. Somewhere in the next world, Ayn Rand is shitting a brick. (Not that she believed in a next world, I know, I know.)

Max Sawicky responded to the Cap'n's post;
"The goal of fairness is equality of results, not equality of opportunity." Actually for the Right, equality of opportunity is not of much interest either. But the main response here is that equality of results, broadly speaking, is the only proof of equality of opportunity.

Unfortunately not. Give both Leonardo DaVinci and Leonardo DiCaprio paint and brushes and see if you get equal results. People have different interests, work ethics, motivations, ethics and dreams which will ensure a wide diversity in outcomes. That's before you even get into things like natural ability and aptitudes. The only way you are going to get equal outcomes is by limiting those who would excel above and beyond others if left to their own devices.

Personally, equality of opportunity means a great deal to me. By that, I mean freedom. Freedom to do as I please with my life and to keep and trade the product of my work. The problem is, Max means something different when he taks about equality of opportunity. I mean "freedom to do things (work, learn, earn, explore)", he likely means "freedom from things (poverty, ignorance, inequality of result)".

I see this debate has gone back and forth between the Captain and Max a few times now. On one part though, I have something to add.

The Captain saysAs I've listened to the rhetoric from the left, and also observed how they've acted, I've encountered a profound gulf between the two. It sometimes seems as if leftists are much more enchanted with democracy and diversity and freedom of expression as abstract principles than they in actual practice when the time comes. What you see is that though freedom of expression is a good idea in general, in this particular case that particular expression is too dangerous and needs to be suppressed. Though democracy is good in principle, in this particular case we need to bypass the system and make sure that the right result happens. Though diversity is good in principle, that doesn't include voices on the right.

About a year ago, I was engaged in email discussions/debates with a socialist from Queens University. She believed and actively supported the agenda which Transnational progressivism describes to a T. (The common factor being "Blame the US) There was one statment she made which blew me away. (paraphrase) "Only those who are properly educated should be allowed to vote".

Needless to say, you can guess where she thought she saw herself with respect to that particular qualification.

Leftist politicians and environmentalists sought yesterday to link Europe's worst floods in decades to U.S. reluctance to endorse the Continent's approach to fighting global warming. The target of their efforts was the Bush administration's decision not to support the Kyoto protocol.

Tuesday, August 13, 2002:

One of the more other-wordly aspects of the Iraq debate is that everyone is weighing very seriously whether we should trample Iraq’s sovereignty by invading and changing the government. But we trample Iraq’s sovereignty every day! Literally every day we fly war-planes over Iraq patrolling the no-fly zones. And we’ve already half-dismembered the country. All those Bush critics who worry about getting bogged down in Iraq should wake up—we’re already bogged down in Iraq! So should all those critics who fear that we may pull the country apart (what is the thriving Kurdish north but a function of an essentially “pulled apart” Iraq?). Bush critics should at least be consistent and come out against the no-fly zones, which by their line of reasoning have bogged down the U.S. military for a decade, dangerously threatened the territorial integrity of Iraq, and are a daily provocation to Arab opinion (shouldn’t Arab opinion--again by the critics’ line of argument--be outraged by infidel war-planes flying over Iraq every day?).

I've been following an interesting story about Microsoft signing a major development deal with the corporate arm of CNN worth $40 Million USD. The catch is the implict condition that CNN will not be allowed to host anything critical of Microsoft. This is a typical example of corporations using their money to stifle debate and rontrol the public's flow of information. What does Microsoft have to hide that it is willing to buy the media's silence? How immoral is CNN for accepting this deal?

The Sun is conservative (and makes no bones about it), and Christina is too. The reason she's giving them the good press can be found near the end of the column.

Of course, no one is more thrilled than the Tories that the NDP is gaining strength, because that weakens the Liberals. But Hampton says Premier Ernie Eves didn't bail them out on the Toronto garbage strike in order to shore up Tory fortunes. In fact, the NDP had been working on it all along, he says.

In order for the tories to get their third term, the NDP has to split the left wing vote. Strategy seems pretty clear, the Tories move to the centre to shave off some of the Liberal's soft centre-right voters, and the NDP shaves off some of the Liberals' left wing. The Tories can reasonably count on right wing voters not to defect or stay home (the memory of the NDP and Liberal administrations preceeding the Tories is still pretty fresh after half a decade), even although many of us will grumble about the shift away from the Common Sense Revolution.

I have a dollar bet riding with the father of one of my friends that the Tories will lose the next election. If I lose, it will probably be the best dollar I ever spend.

"I would suggest that our allies pay close attention to this. Their bitching is having little effect on our opinion regarding our own action. However, their bitching may well sour their long term relationship with us. Though they'd like us to worry about how they feel about us, perhaps they should start looking at the opposite side of it. If they have no chance of convincing us to not attack, then their best course of action is to worry instead about not making us hate them through futile efforts to stop us anyway."

How is this point of view different from the rest of the world telling the US that is should cease and desist (insert laundry list of causes the US isn't complying with) because the rest of the world will hate the US as a result?

How many kidnapping cases in California is that this summer? It seems like it's roughly the rate of one a week at the moment. I recognize it's probably the result of a slow news season that the stories are getting so much play, but it does start to look really strange that all of these cases seem to be in California.

No worries, I'm sure Gray Davis will find a new law that will solve everything. Really. Trust him.

Well, I ended the debate in early July by purchasing a Palm m130. The Treo felt far too light and breakable. I like a solid feeling piece of equipment, and the palm just felt right to me. Yes, I know, I gave up an extra 8MB of storage space and an integral keyboard. I miss the lack of a keyboard, and wish that palm would come out with a thumbboard compatible for the m130.

Since then, I've been enjoying using the palm. it really does make a difference in everyday life. First, if I think of things I can jot it down without a moment's hesitation. The ideas I used to have standing in the subway that I'd forget before getting to paper and pen are now captured. I keep restaurant listings in the Palm, salsa clubs listings, roleplaying game adventures that I'm writing, and even my resume. I keep dozens of notes and to-do lists as well, and the calendar function is fantastic. I could never bloody well stand my old daytimer because of the limitless paper it seemed to accumulate and the limited space in the calendar. I don't need to deal with that anymore.

I've read the reviews on Amazon, and I can't say that I've encountered any of the problems that some people have. No problems with battery life or charging, and no problems with the sensitivity of the screen. The only problem I've got is that last week the Palm prices dropped by about $50 cdn! Oh well.

Actually, it's worse than that. A few weeks ago, I go in touch with one of my friends and I was telling her about getting the Palm. She told me I should have talked to her first, because she works for an office supply store and could have gotten me 20% off the purchase price of the Palm.